Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest scorers the NBA has ever seen, as the Hall of Famer is sixth on the league’s all-time scoring list at 31,560 points, positioned on that list between Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.
A whole lot of those points came by way of what became his signature shot, a one-legged fadeaway that he made famous and constantly drove defenders insane because it was just about unblockable. However, it wasn’t a shot he came into the league with, but was something he developed in the middle of his career. As he explained it recently on the All The Smoke podcast, he felt he’d lost a step and was getting crowded more, and didn’t want to deal with the physical grind of trying to rip through contact and work his way to the free throw line and tough buckets.
So, around 2010-11 — the Mavs championship season — he started tinkering with the one-legged fadeaway that would eventually become known simply as “the Dirk” and it worked well enough that it stuck and eventually got him immortalized doing that shot outside the Mavs arena.
Dirk’s one leg fadeaway will go down as one of the toughest moves ever to guard.
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I do always enjoy hearing all-time greats talk about these things as if they’re so simple and not really a big deal. It’s funny hearing Dirk give an “aw, shucks” routine about how one of the NBA’s most unstoppable shots was really just him being lazy and not wanting to fight through crowds anymore, so he just figured out how to shoot over them and create some space with his legs. Most great shooting big men now have “the Dirk” in their arsenal, but no one’s ever quite mastered the same touch that Dirk had with it. As he noted, it’s not a shot most coaches would encourage someone to take, but when done well and by the right person, it’s the kind of thing that can drive defenders crazy.
